There is no magic formula to driving gas prices down,” President Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd earlier this month. Although he was literally correct that there is no magical concatenation of words involved, there is a formula. It involves either persuading Obama to reverse his opposition to significant expansion of domestic energy production, or replacing him in the Oval Office in November 2012.
The same president who once advised Americans to inflate their tires to beat high gas prices, and who recently told a father of 10 that he should cram his family into a hybrid minivan that doesn’t yet exist, has had his boot on the neck of Gulf of Mexico oil production for nearly a year now, to paraphrase his secretary of the interior. Obama’s intervention began with a lie when White House officials falsely represented to the public and to a court that scientists had approved their blanket drilling moratorium after the BP oil spill. The administration then defied a federal court by replacing its original moratorium, which had been struck down, with a substantively identical second moratorium.
One result of this action is that the Obama administration was found in contempt of court. But a further and more consequential result, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is that American offshore oil production as a whole is down 13 percent.
The latest dog and pony show from Obama:
Obama asks Holder to investigate high gas prices.
Yup.
Not kidding.
Obama wants Holder to investigate supply and demand.
But Obama can’t find a crime…..except for how his OWN policies made the problem of gas prices worse.
So, Holder will be meeting with state and federal peeps like he’s done before.
All those meetings lead to is the demand for more meetings.
Well, it LOOKS like something’s being done.
LOL!
To date, Holder has concluded this:
It is also clear that there are lawful reasons for increases in gas prices, given supply and demand.
In the long run Obama might want to consider not adding to the turmoil in the Middle East and not slow-walking the permitting process for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nan G… nothing new. And certainly not partisan, but Congressional CYA predictable action. They did the same in 2008 under the Dem majority rule. But then Bush was calling for the same in 2006 – also noted here – under a GOP majority.
And I’m quite sure that it goes back prior to that, tho no particular years comes to mind. Point? It’s a predictable Congressional move whenever gas prices rise. Yet has anyone seen any oil producer or refinery charged with wrongdoing? Of course not.
It comes down to this… it’s “us”… the peon constituency, vs “them”… elected officials, the latter who like to pretend play they are doing something when, in fact, they are not. As you, an astute lady, knows, gas prices have two huge factors associated…
1: Domestic refining capability to handle US needs and their locations, the savings from our own domestic supplies sans shipping costs, and
2: The price on the world market that must be paid to purchase crude we don’t produce and must ship to meet our own needs.
On the world market, Obama’s a huge fail, since he’s reduced the US E&P ability for our GOM supplies, while s-l-o-w-l-y ramping up some natural gas and shale. He’s a second huge fail by invading Libya in a “not a war”, under NATO banners… a country that not only has the coveted sweet crude, but also was a quasi ally in the GWOT.
On the domestic, that’s shared criticism since, as OT points out, we haven’t built a new refinery since the mid 70s despite increased use. This also comes into play with developing new source fields in places with no pipe lines or mass transit to move the various oils via trucking.
Congress… as a whole *and* both parties… have done nothing to stave this off. Nor is it “news” that, yet again, Congress throws a mock kangaroo court hearing to feign interest.
Sorry. I can’t lay this on Obama anymore than I can lay it on Bush or prior admins. It is, as you say, a dog and pony show. However it is a bipartisan “us vs them” bipartisan show.
More relevant, the last Oil Refinery in the US was built in Garyville, Louisiana in 1976.
When the EPA, DOE and that idiot Ken Salazar are dictating terms, expect Obama to remain clueless. No ‘Magic” here folks, just Economic restriction by Agency and a continued dependency on Foreign Oil. Moronic Policy is the obstruction, pure and simple. Meddling and Over Regulation at it’s finest.
When Economic Illiterates, Fools and Academic types are allowed to have their way with Energy Policy, expect a train wreck as a result.
Attorney General Holder To Investigate Law Of Supply And Demand
http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/2589-attorney-general-holder-to-investigate-law-of-supply-and-demand
@MataHarley:
Thanks for the history lesson, Mata.
I noted that (at your link) Bush was forced by the media who polled people.
Also Reuters:
I don’t see much media outrage about the poor people this time.
Just the rich kids who might not go on spring break.
@Nan G:
This is a great idea, as neither of them have any clue as to what supply and demand is all about. This could be revelatory.